


A Shipful of Spooks

by CiaraFox



Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Costumes, Dancing, Decorating, Drunken Shenanigans, Face Paint, Fancy Dress, Food, Gen, Halloween, Jack-o’-lanterns, Jump Scares, Music, Party, Pumpkin carving, Season 3 AU, Seasonal fic, Shopping, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trick or Treating, Tricks, reluctant cooperation, silliness, spooky season, sweets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27314281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiaraFox/pseuds/CiaraFox
Summary: Five has decided that this year the crew are going to take part in an old holiday called ‘Halloween’.
Relationships: Five | Das & One | Derrick Moss, Five | Das & Three | Marcus Boone, Hints of Budding One | Derrick Moss/Three | Marcus Boone, One | Derrick Moss & Three | Marcus Boone
Comments: 13
Kudos: 14





	1. Halloween Fun

**Author's Note:**

> A post on Facebook inspired me to do a Halloween fic :D However, this was with about ten days to go… so I didn’t really expect to get it all done in time, and I didn’t xD But I wanted to at least post some of it on actual Halloween (in my timezone anyway) – and I found some decent places to break it. So it’s a little rushed, but here’s the first part ^^  
> Also, many thanks to my good friend [stuffandalsootherstuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuffandalsootherstuff) for helping me with the ideas!  
> Still not super happy with the title but I can't think of anything better xD
> 
> This is tentatively set somewhere in sort of mid season 3 with Adrian and Solara, except One is alive because fuck him being dead, and Four and Six are around because I like having the whole original gang together.  
> Hope you enjoy some silly spooky shenanigans with the Raza crew, with hints at a budding One/Three – and happy Halloween!

“Halloween?”

“Yes!”

“Seriously?”

“ _Yes!”_

Five wasn’t taking no for an answer. As soon as she’d heard of this ‘Halloween’, she knew she wanted to do it. It sounded like so much fun. Dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins, decorating everything with spider’s webs and bats and ghosts – and, of course, trick or treating and getting loads of sweets. What was there not to like?!

Of course, as expected, a few of the crew could apparently find plenty not to like.

Three was making a face like she’d suggested they all go roll around in a big pile of mud. Four had yet to say anything, but it was pretty clear what he was thinking too: ‘I will not be taking part in any of that childish nonsense.’ Solara seemed to be in a similar camp.

Thankfully, the other five seemed a little less disgusted by the idea. One of them, in particular, was the opposite of disgusted.

“Halloween?! That’s the thing with the spooky decorations and the costumes and the trick or treating and stuff, right? Oh, yes! I am so in!” Adrian was grinning like an overexcited kid, and it made Five really happy to see someone was as into this idea as she was.

“Great!” She grinned back at him.

The others seemed okay it with too, though they mostly looked amused at her passionate insistence and over-the-top excitement – but even if they just joined in to humour her, she’d take that. She’d soon get them to love it, too.

“You guys are in too, right?” she asked, half pleading, as she looked at Two, One, Six and the android.

Two, smirking a little, said, “Sure, I’m down.”

Still grinning, Five turned to One. He shrugged, with a small smile curving his lips.

“Yeah, why not,” he said.

The android looked intrigued.

“I am also interested in taking part,” she confirmed.

Lastly, Six laughed a little when Five turned her grin on him.

“Sounds like fun,” he agreed.

Triumphant, Five turned back to Three, Four and Solara.

“That’s six against three,” she told them.

Three just looked at her in dismay for a long moment, as though waiting for her grin to fade. But he was out of luck.

Eventually, he looked desperately around at the others instead. They just shrugged.

“Why not?” Two said. “It won’t hurt you. And it might be fun.”

Three just kept gaping in disbelief. Solara was also looking mildly disgusted.

“Well, I have no problem with the rest of you putting on this event,” Four said steadily, “as long as you don’t expect to force me to take part.”

With that, he turned and left. Five watched his retreating back with a mixture of disgruntlement and disappointment. But definitely not surprise.

“That goes for me too,” Solara said firmly, and then she followed him out.

Adrian looked like he wanted to call after her, but thought better of it, and just fell into a slightly sad expression.

Three gave Five a tired look. “Something tells me you’re not gonna let me get away with that, are you?”

She returned a winning smile. “Nope.”

So it was settled. They were doing Halloween… with the exception of Four and Solara, who Five didn’t really have the courage to try and persuade. Three, on the other hand, she was totally fine with forcing into participating. And he knew not to mess with her.

So on the next station, they went shopping (with a couple of exceptions of course, and one highly reluctant companion). It took them a while to find somewhere that sold Halloween decorations – the holiday wasn’t really celebrated all that much nowadays –, but eventually they found a little homeware shop that had a section at the back with seasonal decorations. Five and Adrian grinned at each other and ran straight for them, while Two, One and Six laughed softly at their eagerness. Three groaned and dragged his feet as he followed slowly behind everyone else.

A short while later, they left the shop with bags bursting, full of fake cobwebs and spiders and bats to hang from the ceiling and banners with little pumpkins on, and more besides. The android also found a Halloween cookbook that she could use to learn how to cook all sorts of spooky treats for them all.

Next, they headed down to the food markets to look for pumpkins to carve. They soon found some, in a variety of sizes – and everyone that wanted to do one picked out one they liked. Three, after Five gave him a look, grumbled and picked out the smallest one he could find, which wasn’t much larger than a tennis ball. Five sighed, but let it go. She also chose a couple of smallish ones for Four and Solara just in case they changed their minds, and they found some packs of candles to go inside the finished jack-o'-lanterns, along with matches to light them.

After that, they looked around the food stalls more generally, the android picking up anything she needed for her cooking. They also stocked up on drinks for after the trick or treating, when they were planning to have a mini party in the mess hall. This was the only bit that Three seemed enthusiastic about, making sure they had plenty of whisky as he ‘was going to need it to get through all this kiddy bullshit’.

They then headed back to the ship to drop everything off, before splitting up to go buy their costumes. Five wanted them all to be a surprise. They’d also pick up their individual supplies for trick or treating, and any more decorations they wanted for their quarters. Five was also going to look for any music she could find. She had been trying to fix an old CD player she’d found for a while, and was finally pretty much done – but she only had two CDs so far, and they’d want more than that for the party. Maybe she could even find some spooky songs.

Before they parted, Five met Three’s disgruntled expression with a strict one of her own. She didn’t need to say anything – it was pretty clear exactly what it meant. ‘If you come back without a costume and something for trick or treat… you’ll regret it.’ He sighed, but looked unhappily resigned.

“I am _not_ happy about this, kid. I hope you get that.”

She just smiled. “I do.”

But she knew that would change. Three was just stubborn, and didn’t want to be into something as cheesy as this – so he refused to be. But she knew, if he let himself, he would definitely enjoy it. Especially the party bit.

So the seven of them split up and began the search, and about an hour later, they all met back at the ship with full bags. Three’s was rather small, and Five eyed him suspiciously.

“I got something!” he said defensively.

She kept eyeing him, but didn’t say anything. She just hoped for his sake that he had.

Later that day, the decorating began. They split up into three groups, and were each allocated to a couple of the main areas of the ship – the mess, the bridge, the training room, the infirmary, the larger storage rooms, some of the the primary thoroughfare corridors, and the Marauder too, even though they weren’t planning to use it. They covered them all in spray-on fake cobwebs, hanging up orange and green banners, dotting fake spiders and skeletons around on the tables and boxes. Five climbed up into the vents to help hang bats and ghosts from the ceilings. They dipped their hands in washable red paint and left bloody marks and handprints on the walls and floors. It took a while, with how big the ship was – but with all of them helping it wasn’t as daunting a task as it could’ve been. Even Three, while complaining loudly the whole time, did chip in enough to make a difference. Although he did also mess around more than was probably helpful. He was with Five and One, and he kept getting distracted ‘decorating’ them instead of the ship. Cobweb spray went everywhere, more than once he threw the pretend spiders at Five and made her scream, and he managed to get his fake-bloody handprints all over both his companions – including both their faces, by sneaking up behind them when they were sticking banners to the walls. One was thoroughly fed-up by the end of it, though he did look like he was forcing himself not to laugh too, on principle – especially as he saw how ridiculous he looked in the mirror, like a red and white monster, clothes and face covered in paint, hair white with cobwebs. Three hadn’t stopped laughing either, which didn’t seem to be helping One’s desire to join in. Five probably should’ve been annoyed at him wasting so much time, but she wasn’t. For once he’d actually been enjoying himself, and ultimately that was the whole point of this.

By the end of the day, they had a fully decorated spooky ship. They all met up to look around at it all together. When the others saw Five and One, all covered in ‘blood’ and spiderwebs, they struggled not to laugh.

“What happened to you two?” Six asked, badly suppressing his smirk.

“He did,” One said wearily, pointing at Three.

Three grinned back innocently, and the others’ expressions instantly became ones of complete understanding.

They began their tour of the newly decorated ship as a group. And it all looked fantastic. Five saw that everyone else’s sections had turned out just as good as the ones she, One and Three had decorated. She grinned around at everything, eyes lit up in wonderment.

“It looks amazing!” she said gleefully.

“Yeah, it does,” agreed Two. “Great work guys.”

“This is going to be such a fun night!” Adrian squeaked excitedly.

The next day, it was pumpkin carving. They all located the pumpkin they’d picked out on the station, grabbed a knife, and got to work. First they had to cut out a circular section of the top, to lift off like a lid. Then, using a big spoon, they scooped out all the insides, piling it into bowls for the android to use later in pumpkin pie.

Three grumbled the whole way through the process, as usual, deliberately taking forever to scoop out his pumpkin’s innards. And given how small it was, that was an accomplishment in itself.

“Oh, come on – cheer up!” One finally said to him. “It’s just a bit of fun!”

Three just glared at him. “This is not fun. It’s stupid.”

“You were having fun yesterday, getting me and Five all covered in paint and cobwebs,” One pointed out.

“Well, I can cover you in pumpkin if you want –”

“No! Never mind!”

Three smirked a little as he carried on slowly scooping. One huffed and left him to it.

Once they each had a hollow pumpkin, they started on their faces, using a knife to carve holes out of the pumpkin’s tough outer layer. When Five spotted One carving something into the top right corner of his, she was curious.

“What’re you doing there?” she asked.

“Oh…” One looked a little embarrassed as he turned it slightly to show her. “I’m just… carving my number,” he said.

Sure enough, she saw that he was partway through carving the number ‘1’ into his pumpkin. Five couldn’t help thinking that was kind of adorable.

“Oh, that’s a great idea!” she said brightly. She looked around at the others. “Guys – we should all carve our numbers in as well! Then we can put them in order when we display them.”

The others were all up for that idea too (Three just rolled his eyes). Then Adrian stuck up his hand like a kid in school.

“Um… what about me?” he asked, looking a little sad to be left out.

Five thought about it for a moment.

“You could do an ‘A’,” she suggested. “And the android can be zero? As she never got a number, but she’s part of the original crew. Plus it’s like binary – zeros and ones.”

The android smiled a little. “Okay.”

Adrian grinned eagerly. “Yeah, that’s great! Thanks!”

So as well as coming up with a face for their pumpkins, they also added their numbers (or letters) in the top right corner. Three did his number and then just sat there scowling at his pumpkin for a few minutes, until Five and One looked at him, and then he sighed loudly and grabbed the knife again. In a sudden and violent motion, he jabbed the knife into the pumpkin, and roughly hacked out a small triangle. Then another. Then two lines for angry, downturned eyebrows. And finally one big jagged hacked out hole for the mouth. Then, with his ugly, rough-hewn face complete, he thumped the knife down on the table and gave a wry smirk.

“Done,” he said, as he shoved his chair back from the table and stood up.

Five looked at him in frustration, but he just kept smirking complacently – she never said his face had to be good. And then he turned and left. Five sighed.

“Well, he did it,” she said exasperatedly. “Guess I can’t complain…”

One shook his head in annoyance. “He’s such a miserable bastard,” he said. “And he’d try and say _I’m_ the party pooper on this ship.”

Two and Six chuckled.

“He’s just being stubborn. We’ll get him eventually,” Two said, smirking. “I know it.”

Soon enough, they’d all finished their pumpkins. They exhibited a variety of facial expressions, from happy to angry to scared to evil. Some were fairly complex, with eyebrows and noses and other facial features; some more simple, just eyes and mouths with jagged teeth. Adrian and Five, in particular, had gone all out, creating very detailed pictures in their pumpkin canvas. Five’s was as close as she could get to a skull, grinning widely and looking very cheerful; and Adrian had done a dog, with floppy ears and its tongue sticking out. Five had also carved Four’s number in his pumpkin, and ‘S’ in Solara’s – not that she expected them to turn up and carve one, but just because she wanted the complete set.

They got out the candles, opened their pumpkins and placed them inside, before lighting them. Then they set them up around the room in order – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, S –, and the android dimmed the lights in the room so they could get the full effect. They looked really quite impressive. The golden glow of the fire spilled out of the carved holes in their pumpkins, illuminating the faces and the numbers and letters. It was a little disheartening, having Three’s scruffy hacked out face and Four and Solara’s blank pumpkins ruining the line-up – but the rest of them were delightful, so they couldn’t be too bummed.

“Don’t they look amazing?!” Five exclaimed, grinning around at everyone.

“Yeah, they do,” Two agreed, smiling.

“I’m not so sure about mine,” Six said, laughing a little. “I’m not a natural artist.”

“Me neither,” said One, looking a little sheepish and tilting his head slightly to the side. “The eyes are lopsided…”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Five said to them both. “They’re both great! And they don’t have to be perfect – they’re not meant to be real faces anyway, right? Maybe your pumpkin is meant to have wonky eyes to look more creepy!”

One chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“Yours is amazing, though, Five,” Two said, and the others nodded.

“Yeah – you’re definitely the best artist among us,” One agreed, smiling at her.

She smiled back, feeling a little self-conscious. “Thanks,” she said shyly. “I really like Adrian’s too.”

Adrian looked flattered. “Oh – thank you! I took an art class once on Rigel 7 and I always thought I had a bit a talent, but, you know, I never thought about actually doing more with it…”

He trailed off when he saw everyone looking at him in amusement, and grinned sheepishly.

“We, uh, mainly did dogs though, so…”

“I’m quite proud of mine,” the android chimed in. She had done a fairly realistic looking smiling face, and it was definitely one of the more technically proficient pieces of art on display.

“Oh, yeah – yours is great too!” Five assured her with a smile. The others all nodded.

“All in all, I think the only one who could really do with an art class is Three,” Six concluded, shaking his head.

“Well, I guess it is scary,” One said.

Five laughed. “There’s something to be said for that…”

“Should we… do something on Four and Solara’s?” One asked. “It looks so… bad, just having those blank ones…”

“Yeah… but…” Five’s brow furrowed a little. “I don’t know. I think we should wait. Just in case they change their minds.”

One looked a little sad, knowing how unlikely that was. But he nodded. “Yeah. I guess you never know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second part will be up very shortly once I've finished editing!


	2. Trick or Treat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Raza crew go trick-or-treating!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of Halloween silliness with the Raza crew ^^ Hope you like the costume ideas!
> 
> This chapter has some companion art attached :D

About a week later, it was finally time for the event itself. Five was so excited for the entire day, especially as the android started bringing out some of the food she’d been making for them to sample. The pumpkin pie was particularly delicious, and Five couldn’t wait to try everything else.

That kept her going until the afternoon, when they could finally start getting ready. Then, grinning uncontrollably, she pulled out the bags containing all her costume stuff from the bottom of her wardrobe, and got to work.

She’d decided to go as a witch. She’d found a really nice black and greeny-blue dress, with criss-crossed ribbons on the front and lacy skirts that puffed out around her, and thought it was perfect. The greeny-blue colour even matched her hair. So she’d looked for the other parts to go with it, and soon found a black witch’s hat, black and green stripy leggings, a long wooden wand, and a set of green and black face paints.

Once she had the outfit on, she went into the bathroom to start on her makeup. First, she covered her whole face and neck in a light green paint with a sponge. Then, she added some darker, glittery green around her eyes, and black to her lips. And to finish it off, she took a finer brush and painted a spiderweb on each cheek, dusting those with a splash of silver glitter. As she stood back to admire her handiwork, she grinned at her reflection. Not bad for someone that had barely ever done makeup before.

As she started to put the paints away, there was a beep from her door.

“Come in!” she called.

She turned as the door slid open, and in came the android. Five took in her costume with an astonished smile.

It was pretty clear that she was meant to be an alien. She had painted her face and whatever bits of her body were visible a kind of shimmery silver-blue. She wore a bright-blue full-body suit with strange spacey designs and symbols. On her head, she had a headband with two antennae, and attached to the sides of her costume were two extra fake arms.

“Hello, human,” she said, in an even more exaggerated version of her usual staccato and minimally inflected voice melody. “I am an alien lifeform here to study the behavioural patterns of your species. Meep zorp borg.”

Five gave a disbelieving laugh.

“You look amazing!” she said, coming closer to get a better look.

Dropping character for a moment, the android smiled at her, looking down at her own costume. “Thank you, Five. I was quite proud of how my costume turned out. And the idea. People do always comment on the way I speak being rather like an alien…”

Five chuckled. “I love it,” she said fervently.

“I love yours, too,” the android said, taking in Five’s witch costume. “I gather you’re a witch?”

“That’s right,” Five said, smiling as she picked up her wand and swished it around towards the android. “So don’t mess with me, you alien invader, or I’ll turn you into a frog.”

“That does not sound like an appealing outcome,” the android said, back in her alien character. “I will do my best to not get on your bad side, Human Witch.”

“Good,” Five said, giving her a pretend stern look. But then she dropped the act and grinned again. “I can’t wait to see everyone else’s costumes!”

The android smiled back. “Yes. It will be interesting to see what everyone has chosen,” she agreed. “Are you ready to begin the trick or treating?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Five said, grabbing the basket she’d picked up along with the costume. The android was also carrying one in one hand. “Let’s go!”

The plan was that Five and the android were going to go trick or treating around everyone’s quarters. Then, each person could tag along with them to the next person’s room, so they got to do some trick or treating too.

First up, it was Two’s room. Five and android went up to her door and pressed the button to tell her they were there.

A few moments later, the door opened, and they were face to face with Two in her costume. It was safe to say that she had gone in for the sexy side of Halloween. The body of her costume was more or less just the normal sort of clothes she would wear: tight black trousers and a tight black vest – only instead of separate items of clothing, it was all one skin-tight full-body suit. Around her waist there was a belt with a tail attached at the back. On her head, she wore a pair of black cat ears, and had painted whiskers onto her cheeks and coloured in the end of her nose black. And on her feet were her usual boots, coming up to just below her knees. She also had painted her nails black.

As Five and the android took her in, she smiled and twirled her tail in her hand.

“What d’you think?” she asked.

“You look incredible!” Five cried.

“Yes – this outfit looks great on you, Two,” the android agreed.

Two chuckled. “Thanks. You guys looks great too.”

Five grinned back. “Well then,” she said, holding up her basket and her wand. “Trick or treat!”

Two smirked and reached over to the table behind her, bringing over a bowl filled with sweets – chocolate and jelly sweets and lollipops. She offered it up to Five and the android, and they both picked a small handful out and put them in their baskets.

Five grinned up at her. “Thanks!”

“Will you be coming with us, now, Two?” the android asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Two said, smiling a little. “I’m up for some candy.”

She picked up a basket of her own from beside the bed, then joined them in the corridor, closing her door behind them.

“So, who’s next?” Two asked as they started walking.

“One,” Five answered. Then she gave Two a sly, amused look. “I think he’s gonna like your costume.”

Two’s lips curved at the corners.

The three of them headed over to One’s quarters and pressed his door’s button. The door soon opened and there was One, though he looked so different it took a second for Five’s brain to register that it was him. He was quite clearly a zombie, and he’d gone all out on the face paint. His whole face and neck were painted green; he had darker grey paint forming hollows around his eyes, and red paint in the form of cuts and injuries on his cheek and forehead. He also had red paint around his mouth, dripping down like blood. Clothes wise, he was wearing a white T-shirt and black trousers, both of which he’d ripped holes in and added blood-stains to. He’d even painted his arms green and done a few fake cuts on them.

“Hey,” he said, smiling at Five and the android. And then, when his eyes fell on Two – as Five had expected –, they widened a little, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

He didn’t say anything for a few moments, just looked at Two distractedly as she smirked back at him. Five was torn between laughing and rolling her eyes.

“Um… One?” she said, waving her wand at him until he looked over, an embarrassed expression crossing his features.

“Huh? Sorry…”

“You’re not meant to say, ‘Hey’,” Five pointed out, smiling when One’s brow creased in confusion. “You’re meant to say, ‘Braaaains’.”

One looked confused for another second, until he remembered what his costume was.

“Oh,” he said, smiling a little. “Right. One sec.” Then, with a sheepish grin, he stepped back and closed the door again.

When it reopened, he had his arms out limply in front of him, and a slack expression on his face. He walked a few slow, wobbly steps towards them and moaned, “Braaaaaaiiiinnnssss…”

Once he’d come to a stop in front of them, Five giggled.

“That’s better!”

One dropped the act again and smiled a little self-consciously back.

“I thought you said you weren’t a natural artist!” Five said excitedly. “Your face paint looks great!”

“Oh… thanks,” One said, grinning a little. “I, uh, I guess I’m more of a painter than a carver. I like your spiderwebs as well.”

“Thanks!”

“I take it you’re a witch?” he asked, and she nodded and gave her wand a couple of swishes. “And…” He looked at the android. “An alien?”

“Yes,” she said. “I am an alien lifeform here to study humanity. So far, I find it rather strange, and very entertaining. Boop. Zeep.”

One laughed.

“Right. And…” His eyes shifted to Two again, and his lips quirked up a little at the corners. “Well, I don’t think I need to ask what you are.”

Two just smiled back, and then lifted up a hand and started pretending to lick it like a cat and wash her face. One watched, torn between amusement and adult appreciation.

To get his attention back again, Five poked him with her wand.

“Hey, zombie man! Trick or treat!”

Looking a little sheepish again, he said, “Right,” and ducked back into his room to grab his bowl of sweets. He offered it out to the three of them, and they all took a few pieces. Once they’d added them to their baskets, One put the sweets back, grabbed his own basket, and joined them out in the corridor.

“Adrian’s next,” Five told them, as she led the way to his quarters.

When they laid eyes on Adrian’s costume, all of them were left speechless. But not because it was so impressive. Because they had no idea what it was supposed to be.

He was grinning widely at them at first, until he took in their bewildered expressions. Then his grin drooped into an embarrassed smirk.

“What… are you?” Two asked eventually.

Whatever he was, it wasn’t your typical Halloween costume, like the rest of them had gone for. He was wearing old-fashioned-looking clothes that brought to mind some kind of old-world explorer – tan trousers, cream shirt, brown leather jacket and boots, all looking rather worn. Over the top of this, he had a long black and red cape that was buckled at the top of his sternum, and fell down over his shoulders to his ankles. He was also wearing a brown fedora-like hat, holding a coiled up whip, and had his face painted white, with dark eye shadows and a red mouth dripping blood. There was also fake blood on the fangs in his mouth.

“Um, wmfh –” He paused to take out the fangs when he realised he couldn’t really talk with them in. “I, well, you see, I… couldn’t decide on what costume to go with,” he admitted, shifting on his feet awkwardly. “At first I thought of a sort of old-timey adventurer, you know, like those really old movies – but then I thought of the ultimate classic – the evil undead vampire – ‘ _I vont to suck your bloooood!’_ and all that… And… they were both so good I just… couldn’t choose. So I thought I’d just do both.”

The others couldn’t help laughing a little. That was so typical Adrian.

“So… specifically, I am an adventurer that got bit by a vampire,” he summarised.

“Right – of course,” Two said, smirking a little in amusement. “We should’ve guessed.”

He gave them a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, now that we know what you are,” Five said, “you look like an awesome vampire-adventurer.”

“Thanks,” Adrian said, smiling at her. Then, remembering why they were here, he said, “Ah – hold on.”

He darted back into his room and returned with a bowl of sweets, which he handed around to everyone. Then he joined them in heading on to the next person’s quarters.

“He’s not going to answer,” Five said with a sigh, as they walked up to Four’s room. “But we might as well try.”

They pressed the button for his door, and after a few seconds it did open. But as expected, Four wasn’t remotely dressed up, and didn’t look remotely impressed. He just glared at the five of them for a moment before shutting the door again.

Five looked around at the others and shrugged.

“He’s even worse than Three,” One said, looking caught between irritation and weariness. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Don’t speak too soon,” Two said, giving him a look. “We’ve haven’t got to Three yet.”

As they carried on walking, Five said, “Guess we might as well get Solara out of the way, too.”

So they went to her quarters next. But when they pressed the button, the door didn’t open. Not for over a minute. Five sighed.

“Guess she’s not even gonna open up,” she said.

Adrian frowned. “No – I bet I can get her to come out and play nice. At least to say hi.”

He stepped forward and tried opening the door. It slid open, and he peered through the doorway… but there was no one there.

He looked back at the others and frowned.

“Maybe she… went to train or get food, or something?” he suggested.

They carried on, Five and Adrian a little more subdued than they had been. But it was Six next – he’d be enthusiastic about joining in on the fun. That thought cheered Five up.

As they turned a corner, something big and red with horns and claws and glowing purple eyes jumped out in front of them, making every single one of them scream. Two and One started scrambling for their weapons before realising they didn’t have them; Adrian and Five darted skittishly behind the others, holding whip and wand up defensively; the android got her fists ready; Two then belatedly seemed to get her head straight and bent over, whipped a knife out of her boot and aimed it menacingly at the creature.

It was only then that their hearts stopped pounding enough for them to hear the laughter.

“Oh my god! That was priceless! You guys are hilarious!”

Frowning, they all strived to get a better look at their attacker. It was undoubtedly red all over, with horns and purple eyes and a forked tail – it looked very much like a demon. But as they looked closer… it became clear that it wasn’t. It was Solara, her face intricately painted to look like an unfeasibly realistic demon, with scales and ridges and severe eyebrows. She was wearing contacts that gave her bright purple eyes with slit pupils. Her hair was tied right back and had been sprayed red as well, and she wore a pair of horns on a headband. A thick red hooded cloak was draped over her shoulders, and under that was a red scaly-looking costume that included a forked demon tail. She also had long stick-on claw-like nails.

“What the hell?!” Two said loudly. “ _Solara!_ You’re lucky we didn’t kill you! If me and One had had our guns…”

She was still laughing, bent over with her hands on her knees. Eventually, she pulled herself together enough to talk.

“I’m sorry,” she wheezed. “I couldn’t resist. When Four and Three were refusing to play along I had the idea and… it was too good.”

“Oh my god!” Adrian, along with the rest of them, was still panting a little. “You scared the crap out of us! I don’t think my heart’s meant to be beating this fast. Is this a heart attack?!”

When Five had got her breath back, and her heart was almost back to its normal rate, she grinned at Solara in astonishment.

“So… you were just pretending to not want anything to do with it?” she confirmed. “And really you were planning this all along – to dress up and scare us…?”

“Yep,” Solara said, looking very pleased with herself. “And it worked like a charm.”

Having seemingly recovered from his brief heart attack, Adrian smiled wondrously at his bodyguard.

“Aw, that’s great!” he said emphatically. “I’m really glad you decided to get involved. I knew you’d enjoy it if you just let loose a little! I mean, you know, not that you’re not normally very… fun and sociable…”

She just looked amusedly exasperated. “Sure.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re joining in too,” One said. “But you are very lucky we didn’t have our guns. Or that Two didn’t throw her knife.”

“I could’ve taken you two down if I needed to,” Solara assured them bluntly.

“Or that I didn’t execute my defence program,” the android added.

When Solara looked at her, she paused for a moment, and then grimaced slightly. “Right… Guess that would’ve sucked…”

One and Two exchanged slightly offended looks.

“Or that I didn’t… whip you with my whip!” Adrian added, brandishing it menacingly.

Solara looked at him, along with the others, and then none of them could hold back their laughter. Even Adrian, who had (mostly) been joking, grinned back at them.

“Yeah – I could’ve blasted you with my wand,” Five said, grinning as she waved it at Solara. “Send you back to whatever hell you came from, you demonic fiend!”

“I have fangs as well!” Adrian added. “I could’ve bitten you and turned you into some kind of-of vampire demon! … Ohh – oh, no – that is not a good idea – that sounds worse!”

Five laughed. “At least you’re already a vampire, so she couldn’t do much to you,” she pointed out.

“That’s true,” Adrian said, looking thoughtful. “I’d just have to take her down before she got to any of the rest of you!”

Solara just smirked a little, folding her arms. “I’d like to see all of you try,” was all she said.

They only had Six and Three left now. Six was first, and when they rang his bell, he looked mildly alarmed as he opened the door.

“Did I hear screaming?” he asked.

“Oh – yeah,” Two said, with a slightly awkward laugh. “That was us.”

Six raised his eyebrows. “What happened?”

“Solara just… scared us,” Five explained. “We thought she wasn’t joining in with Halloween, but then she jumped out at us looking like… well…”

As Six took in Solara’s costume, he chuckled in understanding. “Right.”

Six had quite clearly come as a cowboy. He wore a leather vest jacket over a long-sleeved shirt, tucked into brown trousers with a large-buckled belt. He also had a holster, but a bit different to their normal ones – it was brown leather not black, and didn’t buckle around his leg but just hung down his thigh. On his feet were cowboy boots, and on his head a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. He also had a red neckerchief around his neck.

Five grinned up at him. “Howdy, partner.”

Six smiled back, bending forward and tipping the brim of his hat. “Howdy, milady.”

Adrian was looking very excited. “Hey, our costumes are kinda similar! Well, at least, half of my costume…”

Six took him in and looked just as confused as the rest of them had been. “Um… what… _are_ you exactly?”

Adrian got a little embarrassed again. “I’m… an adventurer that got bit by a vampire.”

“Oh.” Six’s expression became amused. “Right. No, yeah, I can see that. Definitely.”

After looking around at everyone else’s much more straightforward and guessable costumes, Six went to grab his treat for them – only he hadn’t been so simple with his. Rather than just putting some sweets in a bowl, he appeared to have submerged them in some kind of greenish goo. Five and the others looked at him with confused expressions, and he smirked slightly back.

“Hey, I didn’t want to make it too easy for you,” he said teasingly.

Five laughed a little in disbelief. “What even is this?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Six said, his lingering smile betraying his serious tone.

Five just giggled a little more. Then, she reached one hand into the bowl, wrinkling her nose up at the feeling of the cold gelatinous goo. She grabbed a couple of sweet packets and pulled them quickly out, then shook the slime off them before adding them to her basket.

The rest of the trick-or-treaters then took their turns fishing sweets from the bowl of goo. One made an upset noise after his go as he wiped the goo off his hand, and some of his green body paint was rubbed off with it.

“Aww – now my hand’s come back to life,” he said, making Five and Six laugh and Two smirk.

“You can go touch it up after we’ve been to Three,” Five reassured him.

He nodded, then started to look a little amusedly embarrassed – presumably at how that sounded like a girl at a party going into the toilets to touch up her makeup.

So with Six now also in tow, the seven of them headed over to their final stop: Three’s quarters. None of them were really expecting much. But they walked up to his door and pressed the button.

It took a while to open, and Five thought he might just ignore them. But eventually, clearly dragging his feet, Three opened the door. As he looked around at them all, Five noted with satisfaction that, though he tried to hide it, there was definitely a bit of an impressed look in his eyes as he saw how much effort they’d put into their costumes.

Three, on the other hand, was a bit of a different story. He appeared to have gone for the most basic and low-effort costume he could think of. As far as Five could tell, the only thing he’d actually bought for the costume was an eyepatch. Other than that, he was just wearing some of his normal clothes – a white T-shirt, his well-worn leather jacket, and black cargo pants. He was also holding a sword that Five recognised as one of Four’s from the training room. Presumably, he was meant to be a pirate.

Five sighed and gave him a disappointed look. But he had noticed Two and her costume and, like One, was now rather distracted. In a very similar way, his eyes had gone a little wider and he was having a little trouble swallowing. Two just kept smiling. She certainly wasn’t having any aversion to the attention.

“This was the best you could do?” Five said disparagingly, pulling Three’s attention back to her. After he’d taken a moment to focus on the non-tight-sexy-black-cat-costume-wearing female, he shrugged.

“Hey – I’m wearing a costume,” he said defensively. “That’s more than I should’ve given you!”

“You’re mostly just wearing your normal clothes!” Five complained.

“Yeah – ‘cause they go with the costume!” Three insisted. “I’m not gonna waste my money buying specific clothes for this one day when I already have plenty of clothes that work! And I got an eyepatch and a sword!”

“You didn’t even buy the sword! That’s just one of Four’s!”

“He wasn’t using it!”

Five just sighed weakly and gave in.

“Fine… Trick or treat?” she said, holding up her basket.

Three, looking bored, leaned back into his room. He came back with a cardboard box, rather than a bowl. And instead of offering it out to all of them, he reached into it himself. Then he pulled his hand out and showered them with the contents – some of them managed to catch the objects, but most ended up on the floor. Five got hers, and saw that it was not any kind of treat, but a toothbrush.

Five, along with the others, gave Three a baffled and outraged look. He just smirked back.

“Someone’s gotta make sure all your teeth don’t fall out from all that candy. I’m just being responsible.”

Then, before any of them could say anything, he stepped back into his quarters and closed the door.

The trick-or-treaters just stared between the door and their toothbrushes for a long moment.

“What a jerk!” Adrian finally said.

They all started wandering slowly away down the corridor, grumbling between themselves about Three and his obnoxious behaviour.

“All he had to do was buy some candy,” One was saying irritably. “It’s not even like he didn’t buy anything – he took the time to buy the toothbrushes! He just did this on purpose just to be an ass!”

“We should trick him,” the android said suddenly. “And Four.”

Everyone looked at her in confusion.

“Trick them?” Two said. “What do you mean?”

“Well, traditionally, ‘trick or treat’ wasn’t just an idle threat,” the android explained. “The practice stems from early Celtic beliefs that the dead returned to life on the night of ‘Samhain’, which we now call Halloween. The Celtic people would dress up in order to drive away spirits, and lay out food to placate them. This later grew into the tradition of dressing up as ghosts or monsters and going house to house asking for treats. The phrase ‘trick or treat’ is meant to inform the house owners that the visiting ‘creatures’ will perform a trick on them unless they receive a treat to appease them.”

They took that in for a moment, and then Five started to grin.

“So Four and Three… both refused to take part,” she mused. “They didn’t give us a treat. Meaning – as a bunch of evil monsters, we’re meant to get them back with a trick!”

“Exactly,” the android confirmed, smiling.

Five looked around at the others, who were all starting to grin too. There were no objections to be seen.

“Let’s do it,” said Two.

~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew zombie One when testing out costume ideas! It started with a normal drawing of him in pencil and then I coloured it in on an art app on my phone :D  
> Also, gotta admit, I'm really proud of the irony of some of the costumes xD Especially One's hehe


	3. Just Desserts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the crew give Three and Four what they deserve…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay, I'm awful at writing on a time limit ^^; It's not even close to Halloween anymore but I figured as long as I got it out before December that's not too bad xD  
> I'm now splitting this again because part 3 got way too long – this thing just keeps going! When I started it I thought it'd be about a 4000 word one-shot 😂 So not quite… But the fourth and final – I swear! – part will be up very shortly indeed!  
> (I also changed the title to something slightly less awful :P)

The plan was pretty simple. The android would use her neural link to cause some pretend problems with the ship – nothing that she couldn’t easily fix again, but something that would lead to the emergency alarms coming on and cause the ship to shake and jolt. This should force Three and Four to come out of their rooms and go to the bridge, to find out what was going on and help deal with it. Two and the android would then vamp, making up a bunch of problems and things going wrong, to keep them there for as long as they could.

While the rest of them were on the bridge doing that, One, Five, Adrian and Solara, however, would be elsewhere, under the guise of helping Five try and deal with stuff in the engine rooms. But in reality, they had another job to do. They would be heading to Three and Four’s sleeping quarters. One and Five were in charge of Three’s; Adrian and Solara were in charge of Four’s. They each would be armed with as many rolls of toilet paper as they could hold. And by the time they were through, both Three and Four’s rooms would be covered top to bottom in streams of white tissue.

It wasn’t the most sophisticated thing in the world, sure, but it ought to be good enough to get under Three and Four’s skin, and that was all they wanted to achieve from this.

After they’d done that, the four of them would find a place to hide nearby, and Five would go on the comms and tell Two they’d finished ‘fixing the engines’, cueing the android to put everything back to normal with the ship. Then, crisis averted, Three and Four would go back to their rooms… and find a bit of a surprise waiting for them.

In the meantime, Two, Six and the android would join the other four in their hiding place. And when Three and Four no doubt came looking for them to lay into them, they’d all jump out and scare the crap out of the two no-fun spoilsports.

At this point, with any luck, they would explain that it was actually their fault for refusing to treat, and then drag them along to the mess for the party.

One had to admit, he was really looking forward to this. He always loved an opportunity to piss Three off, and covering his room in toilet paper before jumping out and scaring the pants off him sounded like it would do just that very nicely. Served the bastard right for moaning every step of the way and then refusing to even do something as simple as give out sweets at the end.

He may not have shown it, but when Five had suggested this Halloween idea, One had been almost as excited as she was. He couldn’t help it; it just sounded really fun. Decorating the ship with all things spooky, carving pumpkins, dressing up in an awesome costume, and getting loads of nice food… Sure, it was kind of childish, and he felt a little embarrassed about it, but… he’d definitely been into the idea. And so far, with the exception of Three and Four, it had been just as good as he’d imagined. The decorations all looked amazing, the pumpkin carving had been really fun and not as hard as he’d thought, he was pretty proud of his costume, and who wouldn’t love a big basket full of sweets? So this trick to put Three and Four in their place ought to be the icing on the cake.

“So, everyone know the plan?” Two asked the group at large, and they all nodded. “Great. Then let’s get started!”

With that, she, Six and the android headed for the bridge, while One, Five, Adrian and Solara headed down to the storage rooms and grabbed all the toilet rolls they could carry. Thankfully they had plenty spare, so they weren’t going to run into any problems trying to visit the bathroom until their next supply run. As they were starting to head back up, the lights dropped into the red emergency lighting, and alarms started blaring.

Five looked at the other three with a grin.

“Showtime.”

They hurried back to the sleeping quarters, and then Adrian and Solara split off to Four’s while One and Five carried on to Three’s. Once there, Five pressed the open door button, and they both held their breath as it slid across. If Three had decided not to bother leaving his room, the plan was ruined.

But they found the room delightfully empty, and grinned at each other.

They got right down to work. Five took the left side of the room and One took the right. And then they started unrolling the toilet paper and draping it over everything in sight. The coat hook, the bed, the tables, the sofa, the desk and chair and computer, all of Three’s guns he had hanging on the wall. Five even opened Three’s cupboards and toilet-papered his clothes, while One went into the bathroom and covered the shower, sink and toilet. Lastly, they even covered a good proportion of the floor, and draped the last few strips over the wardrobe doors.

By the time they were done, after about twenty minutes, the whole room was covered in strands of white, like a fresh snowfall. One and Five looked at each other with satisfied smiles.

“Think we got everything,” One said.

“Yeah,” Five agreed. “Now for part two.”

Together, they headed back out of Three’s room, and over to the arranged hiding spot, behind some boxes in a corridor roughly halfway between Four and Three’s rooms, and on the way to the mess. They crouched down there to wait for the others, and a few minutes later, Adrian tore around the corner, followed shortly by Solara who looked rather exasperated.

“We did it!” Adrian gasped excitedly as he crouched down behind the other set of boxes. “Four’s room is a total mess! What about you two?”

“Yeah, we were pretty thorough. Three’s not gonna be happy,” Five said, grinning.

“So now we just have to tell the others we’re done,” One said.

Five nodded. She activated her comm and started speaking.

“Okay – we’ve done all we can to fix the engines,” she said.

“ _That’s great_ ,” Two said in reply. “ _Nice work_.”

A few moments later, the alarms stopped and the lighting went back to normal, as the android fixed whatever problems she’d caused.

“ _The ship is stabilising_ ,” the android said. “ _Everything should be functioning normally again soon_.”

“ _Excellent_ ,” Two said. “ _Well, I guess we can… get back to what we were doing, then. Meet you guys in the mess, Five?”_

“Sure thing,” Five replied.

One, Five, Adrian and Solara exchanged pleased smiles.

“Now we wait,” said Solara.

Three trudged back to his quarters, grumbling to himself. Stupid ship breaking down all the time. This time it had been something about the engines or the relays or… He never could follow all that technical drivel. At least, what it was, it hadn’t taken too long to fix for once.

He reached his room and pressed the button to open the door. Then, after taking two steps inside, he froze, and his mouth dropped open.

“ _What the hell?!”_

Toilet paper! His room was entirely covered in toilet paper! The bed, the sofa, the tables, the cupboards, the floor – even in the bathroom and hanging off all of his guns!

He just stood there a moment, totally dumbfounded. And then understanding hit him like a punch to the face.

“Those little _bastards!”_

Fuming, he spun on his heel and stormed back out of the room. He headed in the direction of the mess – that was where those jerks had said they were going to meet.

He should’ve _known_ they were up to something! Why would Five need One, Adrian _and_ Solara to help her deal with the engines?! God, he was an idiot – they totally played him!

He stormed down the corridors in a rage, brandishing Four’s sword, flipping his eyepatch up onto his forehead so he could see where he was going. He was going to show those overgrown children what happened when you messed with him.

As he turned down one corridor, he nearly walked straight into Four, who had been coming down the adjacent one at a similarly brisk pace. They both looked at each other in surprise.

“Four – you won’t believe –!”

“Those disrespectful –!”

They spoke at the same time, then paused and looked at each other more fully, taking in each other’s mirrored angry stances.

“Did they –?”

“Yours too –?”

They exchanged furious expressions.

“Let’s find those assholes!” Three said firmly. Four gave a nod of affirmation.

So they set off again together. After a moment, Four seemed to notice the sword Three was holding, and frowned.

“Is that my sword?”

“Uhh…” Three looked at him with a slight grimace. He hadn’t exactly asked Four if he could borrow the sword… “Yeah. I needed it for my costume.”

Four glared at him for a moment. Then eventually, he turned away and impassively said, “You will clean it thoroughly before returning it.”

Three stared at him for a moment. _How dirty does he think my hands are?_

Together, the two of them kept walking, marching angrily around the ship towards the mess hall. A few corridors away, they turned a corner –

“ _RAAAAHHHHHH!”_

“ _AHHHHHH!”_

Three instinctively threw the sword up in front of his face, and Four did the same with his fists. A second later, they both felt another rush of anger and embarrassment, as they looked at the rest of the crew stumbling around laughing their heads off. They’d just jumped out from behind some boxes to scare them like a bunch of five-year-olds. How mature.

“ _You – frickin’ – psychos!”_ Three snapped. His heart was pounding, breath coming hard.

“What in Zairon’s name are you doing?” Four yelled, appearing to be in a similar condition.

The others were too busy laughing to reply. Most of them were doubled over, or leaning on the walls, some wiping tears from their eyes. Jerks.

“So this is how you guys respond to people not taking part in your stupid games, is it?” Three said angrily. “Trash their rooms and then try and give them heart-attacks?”

They all just kept laughing. It was pissing Three off more and more.

“That’s gotta be, like, breaking and entering, or damage of property or something,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at them. “Right, Four?”

Six finally managed to get ahold of himself enough to straighten up and speak.

“There was no breaking,” he pointed out. “And nothing was damaged.”

“Well, it’s some kind of violation!” Three insisted.

Five grinned over at him. “Entering and decorating.”

That made the others burst into a whole new wave of laughter. Two was gripping the wall for stability and One was clutching his belly like he had a stomach ache.

“Oh my god, I need to sit down!” he gasped.

“‘Entering and decorating’, that’s genius!” Adrian got out between giggles.

Alright, maybe it was kind of funny…

No! He wasn’t going to laugh at these idiots’ stupid jokes! Three firmly forced the smile back off his face and shoved his scowl back on.

“Non-consensual entering and decorating!” he said accusingly.

And that just made them laugh more. Goddamn it!

“I’m serious!”

Nothing.

“Oh, no – what have we done?! We non-consensually entered and decorated! We’re monsters!” Five cried over-dramatically.

The others laughed harder, and before Three could stop himself he was starting to join in again. Dammit! Why did laughter have to be so infectious?! Four even seemed to be fighting back a smile when Three glanced at him.

Unfortunately, before they could rein it in, the others noticed and grinned.

“They’re laughing! We got them!” Adrian said, pointing at them excitedly.

“No we’re not!” Three protested. But it was getting harder and harder to force down his unruly amusement.

“They are!” One said weakly, still recovering from the excessive laughing, but managing to straighten up enough to flash them a teasing smile.

“Definitely,” Two agreed, smirking.

Three and Four looked at each other with mirrored expressions of frustration.

“We are _not_ amused by your unwarranted acts of vandalism,” Four said.

“Yeah, vandalism! That’s good!” Three exclaimed, pointing at them again.

The rest of the crew were finally starting to sober up from their laughing fits.

“It wasn’t unwarranted,” Five said, with a far too sweet smile.

Three scowled at her. “Oh, ‘cause it’s such a crime to give people toothbrushes so they don’t get cavities after scarfing down candy all night.”

“Actually, Five is correct,” the android chimed in.

Three and Four frowned at her.

“What are you talking about?” Four asked.

“The trick-or-treating is more than just visiting people and filling up baskets with candy,” she told them. “Technically, the trick-or-treaters are telling the house-owners that they will perform a trick on them unless they receive a treat.”

“So…” Two continued, smirking, “since you refused to give us anything, Four, and you just gave us toothbrushes, Three… we were perfectly entitled to trick you both, according to the rules.”

Three and Four just stared at them in disbelief.

“Well, no one told us that before!” Three complained indignantly.

The others just laughed again.

“You can’t just suddenly decide to go along with some centuries-old stupid tradition’s rules without even telling us, that’s just –”

“Oh, come on,” Six said, looking exasperated as he stepped forward and put an arm around Three’s shoulders. “Can we leave the ranting there and get on with the party?”

Three and Four eyed him suspiciously. The others were also grinning, which was a very bad sign.

“Yeah – let’s go!” Five agreed, running forward to grab Three’s wrist and start pulling him forward.

“Who said I’d want to party with you assholes?” Three said darkly, as he was slowly dragged along.

“Come on, it’ll be great!” Five said cheerfully.

Three looked at her sceptically.

“Well, you can’t really stay in your rooms now,” Solara said, with a smirk. “Unless you’re really big fans of toilet paper.”

That just got her a deathly scowl.

“There’s alcohol,” One said. Three turned to him with an eyebrow raised – that sounded more like it. One smiled, knowing he’d got him. “Lots of alcohol. Remember? We stocked up on the station.”

He did remember. He’d made sure to get loads of whisky.

Three allowed himself a reluctant smile. “I guess I can make that work.”

One’s lips pulled up more at the corners. Three stopped resisting so much and let the others pull him along.

“And snacks!” Five added. “We have loads of stuff we got on the station, and the android’s been making stuff for us all day.”

“Yes – there are lots of food options that I hope will be very enjoyable,” the android confirmed with a small smile.

“I _am_ hungry,” Three conceded.

“You’re always hungry,” One said, grinning and jumping away from the smack Three aimed his way.

Two looked back at Four, who hadn’t moved and was looking at them all with narrowed eyes.

“Come on, Four,” she said. “We’re not asking you to dress up or do any other silly Halloween stuff. Just come for a drink and some food.”

He kept glowering for a moment. But, eventually, he sighed and started to walk. Two smiled.


	4. Party Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the entire crew finally getting in on the fun, the Halloween festivities conclude with a party in the mess – and things get just a little crazy…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More art at the end of this chapter :)  
> Hope you enjoy the final installment, and the hints of One/Three cuteness! :D

So, a short while later, all nine of them were in the mess, sipping their first glasses of whisky (or pineapple juice, in the cases of Five and Adrian) and getting stuck into some of the android’s pumpkin pie. It was really good, and she’d even found some whipped cream to go with it. Five had also hooked up the music player she’d managed to fix, and started playing one of the CDs of old Halloweeny music she’d picked up from some antique shop. As well as the pumpkin pie, there were roasted pumpkin seeds, fairy cakes with little iced pumpkins and bats on them, iced biscuits in the shape of skeletons and ghosts, and various other spooky, tasty goodies. The treat-givers had also brought the bowls of spare sweets from their rooms, which ranged from chocolate balls wrapped in foil that looked like eyeballs, to jelly worms and spiders.

Three and Four were still kind of grumpy to start with, about being forced to participate in the festivities, and about the others TP-ing their rooms and jump-scaring them.

“Can’t believe you jerks violated our privacy like that,” Three grumbled. Looking at Five specifically, he said, “Thought I told you about that way back when you snuck in my room to steal my bullets.”

She just grinned back cheekily.

“To be fair, you deserved that too,” One said, making Three turn and glare at him. One just smiled pleasantly back.

“I did tell you all that I was not taking part in this event,” Four said, sounding a little disgruntled. “Therefore I don’t find it very fair that I was included in this ‘trick’ for not participating in the ‘treat’ when I had already clearly expressed that I wouldn’t be.”

“Oh, stop complaining, both of you,” said Six in exasperation. “It’s just a bit of fun. And it’s only toilet paper!”

Sensing that Three was about to grumble some more, One quickly stepped in and pushed another chocolate cupcake towards him.

“Here, eat cake,” he said.

Three still looked a little grumpy, but he didn’t say anything, and just rolled his eyes half-heartedly, picked up the cake and started eating it. One smiled.

“You’ve gotta admit,” Two said, “even if you’re not into this Halloween stuff, the pumpkins look pretty cool.”

The android had turned the lights a little lower in the mess so that they could get the full effect, and it did look really awesome. All their unique carved faces shone with warm orange candlelight from inside. There was something different, though, and it took them a second to see it. Then Five gasped.

“Solara! Your pumpkin –!”

She looked at the bodyguard in astonishment, and One, Two and Six joined in. Because her pumpkin wasn’t blank anymore – it had a demonic-looking face carved into it. She gave a small smile and shrugged.

“It looked so boring next to all the others,” she said in explanation.

Five was grinning widely. She looked like she kind of wanted to try and hug her, but knew that wouldn’t be a great idea. So instead she just smiled back at the pumpkins.

“Well, it looks awesome now!”

“Thanks.”

“Now there’s only one odd one out,” Six said, giving Four a meaningful glance.

Four just glared back. “I never said I would come to this party to start getting involved in this festive nonsense.”

The others all sighed.

“Well, at least it’s right in the middle,” One pointed out. The way it had worked out with their ordering, Four’s blank pumpkin was right in the middle of the line-up, with four carved pumpkins either side. “Kinda looks intentional.”

Five saw that he was right, and smiled a little. “Yeah, it does.”

Adrian was nodding too, looking approving. “Yeah! It looks so good now!” he said, and he turned to smile at Solara. “Thanks to you fixing the line-up.”

As he sipped his whisky and looked over at Adrian, Three seemed to notice his lack of alcoholic drink and frowned a little.

“Hey – why are you drinking that boring shit?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh…” Adrian gave a little sheepish grin. “Uhh, believe me, it’s for the best. Me and alcohol don’t really… mix so well. I mean, you know, I’m already pretty, uh, fidgety, in general… Add alcohol and, well… it’s kind of a nightmare. Plus I’m a major lightweight.”

“It’s true,” Solara chimed in, with a jaded look. “God, that was a long night…”

Adrian grimaced awkwardly at whatever memory she was talking about.

“Right… Guess that makes sense,” Three said, smirking a little. “You’re already loopy enough even without alcohol.”

“Exactly,” Adrian agreed, with a little nervous laugh.

Three then seemed to belatedly take in his costume, and snorted, making Adrian look at him again in confusion.

“Speaking of loopy… What the hell are you meant to be?” he asked with total lack of tact. “I didn’t notice your ‘costume’ before…”

“Oh.” Adrian’s hands fidgeted a little embarrassedly. “I’m, uh, an adventurer that got bit by a vampire.”

Three laughed, but it was fairly clear that it was out of pure amusement, not mockery. Or not much, anyway. “Oh, right, that totally normal Halloween costume.”

Adrian grinned sheepishly. “I couldn’t decide…” he muttered. Three just laughed more and nudged him playfully.

“At least he’s wearing something,” Six said, giving Four another pointed look.

“Yeah – even I’m wearing a costume, man!” Three said, pointing at him with his own sword. “Step up!”

Before Four could respond, Two looked at Three with a suspicious expression that turned slowly into realisation.

“Hang on… Your costume is a pirate,” she said. “Pirates hijack ships and steal their stuff. We hijack ships and steal their stuff. We are basically pirates! You just dressed up as an ancient version of us!”

As the others realised that was true, they all turned to give Three similar disdainful looks.

“You really didn’t put any effort into your costume at all, did you?” Two said wearily.

Three looked a little offended. “I didn’t think about that, I just thought pirate! You think I would’ve made that connection?”

“That’s a good point. He’s not that deep of a thinker,” One conceded, making Three give him an irate look.

“Hey! Want me to make that costume into a reality, Pretty Boy?”

One just chuckled. “What, kill me and bring me back to life?”

“Something like that…” Three muttered darkly.

“Well, at least you’re bringing me back – could be worse,” One said, smiling when Three just scowled more intensely.

“I really like all our costumes,” Five said with a smile. “Even if Three’s is a little… basic.”

“ _Thank_ you,” said Three, looking way too proud given the addendum.

“We did all have some great ideas,” Six agreed.

Three narrowed his eyes at him a little. “Why are you a cowboy anyway?” he asked. He pondered for a moment, and then a look of clarity came over his face. “Oh, I get it, are you a sheriff? Because you’re a cop?”

Six shrugged, looking a little confused and flustered. “No! I mean… I’m just a cowboy. I saw the hat when I was looking around and thought it’d make a good costume.”

“I think you make a good cowboy,” Five said, smiling at him.

He smiled back. “Thanks.”

“Better cowboy than cop,” Three muttered into his glass.

As Six gave him a look of indignation, One quickly intercepted with some more food, pushing the plate of biscuits towards Three. Three eyed him with slight suspicion even as he picked one up and took a bite.

“Are you trying to get me fat?” he asked.

One grinned a little as he picked up the whisky bottle and topped both of them up. “Just trying to get you less grouchy.”

As he crunched down a skeleton biscuit before picking up another, Three mused, “Well… I think it’s working.”

They kept making their way through the food as they chatted and joked around. Three and even Four gradually started to loosen up and get over their disgruntlement about the earlier events. On Three’s part that was largely thanks to One force-feeding him sugar and alcohol until he stopped being grumpy. After a few whiskies, both he and One were considerably more cheerful. And the others were getting increasingly playful as well. After a bit, Five and Adrian managed to drag Two, Six and the android up to dance, while the rest of them watched in amusement. They weren’t at that stage yet, and just stayed at the table, drinking and snacking and chatting.

After a while of watching the dancing and talking about how silly they looked, Three frowned at Solara curiously.

“Hey, I thought you weren’t joining in with all this kiddy shit anyway?” he said.

She looked at him and shrugged. “As long as I got to freak some people out, I’m cool with it,” she said.

Three took that in and then nodded in understanding. “Makes sense.”

One couldn’t help chuckling a little as he thought back to their trick, and how terrified Three and Four had looked. Three turned and gave him a dirty look.

“What?”

“Nothing,” One said, but Three kept glaring at him until he explained. “Just… thinking about how fun it was, scaring you.”

“Oi!” Three jabbed a finger at him, making One bite back his continued laughter. “That was not fun! It was mean, and totally uncalled for. Right, Four?”

“Yes – definitely uncalled for,” the prince agreed.

Three looked satisfied, and nodded decisively at One, who managed to keep down the rest of his laughter.

“Right, right,” he murmured. He couldn’t entirely stop his smile though.

Five had started trying to teach the others some really old dance she’d discovered called the Macarena, which went along with one of the songs. All five of them were laughing as they tried to remember which order to do all the moves in. Then there was another one called the YMCA, which involved shaping those letters with your arms above your head. They were both rather strange, and One had no idea what ‘YMCA’ was meant to stand for – but they looked pretty fun, too. After not-really-mastering those, they went back to their own individual dances. For Five and Adrian, this was doing whatever ridiculously silly moves they could come up with. Two and Six were dancing more normally, which, for Two, meant quite a lot of hip-swaying and tail-swishing – and which was, well, pretty enjoyable to watch for One and Three. The android seemed to be doing some kind of weird half-bowing movement with her arms flinging around that was definitely not a real dance, but she seemed to be having fun.

A few more healthy whiskies later and even the rest of them were starting to get into the music. After a little while of watching the others, Three was at the point of wanting to dance, and after trying to force the rest of them up for a while, to no avail, he went by himself. Honestly, a part of One wanted to join him but… he just wasn’t quite drunk enough yet.

So he, Four and Solara stayed sat down, and just watched and laughed as the others danced around like idiots. Three was particularly awful, and it was just hilarious to watch. The others were soon cracking up laughing at him too. They started all dancing together again, Three – and Six, following his lead – grabbing the girls’ hands and swinging them around like it was some mediaeval ball, until they got dizzy and had to stop.

A little bit later, Three came back over.

“You guys coming or what?!” he said loudly over the music, which someone had definitely turned up quite a lot at some point.

Four and Solara just groaned and stayed firmly sat, but Three’s eyes were locked on One, as though sensing some wiggle room in him. He grinned widely, and One returned an uncertain, conflicted expression.

“Come ooooon!” Three said, still grinning as he leaned down towards him, holding out his hands. “You know you wanna! It’s fun!”

Even though he did want to, and he was fairly drunk at this point, One still felt pretty awkward. He wasn’t exactly a super confident, showy sort of guy, and dancing in front of everyone…

“Oh, come on, Pretty Boy,” Three said almost pleadingly. “Don’t be a party pooper.”

At that, One gave him an affronted look. “You’re the one who refused to do anything more than half-assed up ‘til now! And we had to drag you to this party!”

Three just kept smiling and holding out his hands expectantly. “Don’t wanna kill the vibe for me now I’m finally enjoying it, then, do ya?”

One glared at him half-heartedly. Then, with a small sigh, he lifted up his own hands, letting the victoriously grinning Three take them and pull him to his feet, and onto the makeshift dance floor.

One still felt more than a little awkward at first, as Three kept hold of his hands and tugged him along in all his dancing next to all the others. But as Three started doing all his ridiculous moves, even so much as marching them around the floor and twirling One under his arm, One was soon in total hysterics, along with the others, blushing more than a little but one hundred percent past all his awkwardness and discomfort. Three’s silly carefree-ness was kind of catchy. He was an annoying, stubborn asshole a lot of the time but, when he finally let that oafish wall fall away, he really was a hell of a lot of fun.

One let Three do all his silly dancing with him for a while, the two of them only pausing to top themselves up on whisky and snacks. The others were doing the same, with Five and Adrian keeping themselves steadily supplied with chocolate and sweets – and soon, all the adults were well and truly hammered, and Five and Adrian were totally hyped up on sugar. Then things got really nuts. Adrian had put his vampire fangs back in and started going around alternating between pretending to bite people and whipping them with his whip. Five was running around screeching and fending him off with spells, accompanied by Two who was aiming cat-like scratches at him, and the android who was flailing her four arms around and claiming her usual alien mind-control powers were failing her. The others mostly watched and dodged and laughed their heads off.

Eventually those three humans got tired and went to sit down for a bit to get their breath back. Six, One, Three and the android stayed up dancing. The android was doing all sorts of weird alien and robotic looking dances while making ‘meep, moop’ noises, and in the end the others started copying her, at first because she looked ridiculous, but then because it was just really fun. Then Six started showing them all some kind of cowboy dance, which mainly involved linking arms with each other and swinging around in a circle, before moving onto the next person. It was surprisingly fun for something so simple. Five and Adrian soon ran back up to join in with this, and they all swung each other around until they got dizzy.

Two came back up to join them in a little bit, and she’d even somehow managed to convince Solara to come with her. She still looked fairly reluctant, but after a while of being there with them all being silly, she gave in and joined in too, and started getting into her demon character again and trying to freak everyone out. Vampire-adventurer Adrian decided to team up with her, and then the chaos resumed. Five continued waving her wand around and making up incantations, and while she distracted them Six managed to sneak round and steal Adrian’s whip, which he then tied into a lasso and started spinning around his head and trying to catch the monsters in. One went proper zombie again and started meandering slowly around with his arms out, moaning and trying to eat people’s brains – mainly Three’s. Three seemed to find it both hilarious and kind of endearing, and he got in on the fun too, getting into his pirate character, holding up Four’s sword and swashbuckling away to fend One and the others off. That is, until there were a few too many close calls and Four suddenly appeared and took the sword off him ‘before he decapitated someone, or himself’. Three looked a little pouty, which made One laugh – but then Five noticed Four was there and she refused to let him go back to his seat. So, after a bout of vehement persuading, he sighed loudly and agreed to stay. And after a little while, laughing at how ridiculous everyone else was being as they danced and messed around, even he couldn’t help enjoying himself just a little too.

They stayed there long into the night. But eventually, at about 4am, pretty much all of them were close to dropping, so they had to call it a night.

They left the messy table to be dealt with tomorrow, and all started to head out into the corridor. As they did, One happened to glance at the pumpkins, and he saw that every single one had a carving in it now. At some point Four had done his – with the sword, by the looks of it. A couple of jabs for the eyes and a slash for the mouth. It wasn’t much, but it was something. One smiled as he followed the others out of the room.

They started to head back to their quarters, most of them clinging to each other for support as their wobbly legs were not to be relied on. Five and Adrian, like the sugar-hyped kids they both were, despite age, were running ahead, still playing their characters and giggling madly, while the android tagged along making her alien noises. Two and Solara were both trying to be independent and not get any help, but every so often one of them would wobble and the other would put out an arm to steady them without a word. Four had been mostly fine on his own, but when Six kept stumbling and bumping off the walls, he stepped in to give him a hand, letting the larger man lean on him. And One and Three had totally lost all their reservations and were clinging to each other like their lives depended on it, tripping down the corridors after the others.

When they had to part to head off to their separate rooms, they all stopped at the junction to say goodnight.

“See,” Five said smugly, grinning widely at everyone. “Told you Halloween would be a great idea.”

“It was amazing!” agreed Adrian, still extremely jittery from all the sweets and practically bouncing up and down.

“Yeah, yeah,” Three said slurrily, rolling his eyes, one arm still wrapped around One’s shoulders as he leaned quite heavily on him. “Still not happy with you assholes.”

“Me neither,” Four said, trying for a glare, though his eyes appeared to be having trouble staying open.

“Oh, come on,” Two said, smirking at them. “You had fun and you know it.”

“Yeah – you were the one trying to get _me_ to dance, remember?” One said to Three.

“Well, that’s ‘cause I was drunk,” Three insisted. “Everything’s fun when you’re drunk.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” One said, rolling his eyes light-heartedly.

“Speaking of being drunk, we’d better get to bed before we all just pass out right here,” said Two.

“Bed sounds good,” said Three wistfully. Then, as though that had reminded him of something, his features suddenly dropped into a scowl. “Hey, hang on! How the hell am I meant to sleep when you dickheads TP-ed my entire room?!”

When Four registered his words, he joined Three in his indignation. The others just laughed, having completely forgotten about that as well.

“Oops,” said Five, grinning sheepishly.

Three glowered at her.

“I mean, toilet paper’s not exactly known for being really hard and uncomfortable,” One pointed out cheekily, “so I think you’ll be alright until morning.”

Three turned the glower on him, and wobbled backwards as he did so, making One snicker as he righted them both with some effort.

“We’ll help you clean it up tomorrow,” Two promised.

“Fine,” said Three grumpily. “Jerks.”

So with final goodnights, the nine of them parted ways, all going a little slower without anyone to help them along. But eventually they all made it back to their beds. And as Three flopped down onto his toilet-paper-covered bedspread with a satisfied sigh, he had to admit… Halloween wasn’t so bad after all.

~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cute Zombie One is cute ^^  
> (Also I didn't really intend for Three's comments on One's costume to be so meta but… it just happened xD)


End file.
